The Arab League's peace mission to Syria was on the verge of collapsing today
after Gulf states followed Saudi Arabia in pulling out.

The Gulf Co-operation Council, which represents Saudi Arabia and the other oil-rich Gulf monarchies, said it was convinced that "the bloodshed and the killing of innocent people there is continuing".

Its decision furthers the growing international divide over Syria between Western-supporting states and a loose anti-western coalition involving Iran, Syria's closest ally, but also Russia, Lebanon, Algeria and Iraq, who have opposed action against Damascus.

Syria's foreign minister, Walid al-Moallem, said the government was considering whether to allow the mission to continue - something it had previously indicated it would accept. He said Syria now "rejected" Arab solutions to its internal crisis, after the League on Sunday demanded President Bashar al-Assad accept a unity government with the opposition followed by free elections within six months.

He claimed the League had deliberately put forward a peace plan it knew would be rejected by Damascus as a pretext to "internationalise" the situation, adding that "half the universe" was involved in a plot against the country.

"It is the duty of the Syrian government to take what it sees as necessary measures to deal with those armed groups that spread chaos," he said, suggesting that Mr Assad now sees himself as in a fight to the death with the opposition, with no compromise possible.

Following its meeting on Sunday and its ultimatum to Mr Assad to reform, the League will take its proposal to the United Nations later today. The secretary-general, and Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani, the prime minister of Qatar who oversees the League's committee on Syria, formally asked to meet Ban Ki-moon, the secretary-general.

William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, called on the Arab League to urge the UN Security Council to pass a resolution on Syria.

"I hope in due course the Arab League will explain the situation to the United Nations and ask the UN Security Council to pass an appropriate resolution that will assist towards saving lives in Syria," Mr Hague said after talks with Kevin Rudd, his Australian counterpart, in London.

Syrian opposition groups, who have argued for the monitoring mission to end, are calling for UN intervention "to protect civilians", though it is not clear what that would entail. NATO has so far ruled out a military role of the sort seen in Libya, but the Syrian National Council has endorsed suggestions of a "safe haven" or buffer zone implemented with a no-fly zone if necessary.

That would be fiercely resisted by Damascus as a potential "Syrian Benghazi", a base for further rebel activity as happened in Libya last year. Even if it won backing from other UN security council members such as Britain, France and the United States it would certainly be blocked by Russia.

Mr Moallem said he was confident Syria could still rely on its old Cold War ally. "No one can doubt the strength of the Russian-Syrian relationship," he said. "Russia will never accept foreign interference in Syria's internal affairs. That is the red line."